Several years ago, Mark and I found ourselves sharing an office together in Richmond, Virginia. It was nothing elaborate, but we both had our own carrels, computers, and commissions.
The trouble started with the fact that Mark’s desk was closer to the door than mine. I mean, when you are hauling in a bunch of literature and lesson plans, it’s so much easier to put them down on the first desk than to walk those extra three steps, don’t you think?
Which brings me to the reason that my bottle of sparkling water was on Mark’s desk. On a recent trip to pick up supplies, I decided that I could save money by keeping my own (big) bottle of club soda available in our office. That way, we weren’t at the mercy of the vending machines. Makes sense, right?
But have you noticed that trying to save a few cents here and there sometimes ends in an expenditure of more than you bargained for? Yeah….I learned that lesson that day, too.
Mark was seated at his desk and I stood over him expounding on my next big idea with gusto and enthusiasm. Single-focused on the passion of the moment, I opened the bottle of soda water without consideration to the jostling it had incurred before arrival. It exploded all over the desk and into Mark’s open laptop.
The next few minutes involved lots of scrambling, dripping and sopping. I felt as sick as Mark looked. But the only thing that he said was, “Accidents happen. After all, it’s just a machine.”
This story for the computer doesn’t end well. I ruined Mark’s laptop that day. It did blink several times and fuzz a bit, but eventually, it died a quiet death – taking all his contacts, documents and files with it. Some had been backed up. Some had not.
Unfortunately, there have been too many of these type stories in our marriage – stories in which I have dropped, broken or backed into something just because I wasn’t paying attention.
But almost to a situation, Mark’s reaction has been the same: saying little, forgiving much.
I guess it’s these very situations, the ones which expose us at our worse, which have truly grown our marriage.
And although I began marriage with a vague distrust for most of the male species, I’ve learned that a man who truly trusts God can be trusted…even when you are at your worst.
After all,
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Picture above courtesy of Sara Jeng Grewar (follow her on instagram!)
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